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United AirlinesWithout more gates, CEO Scott Kirby said the airline would have to reduce or change schedules to deal with frequent congestion at its Newark, N.J., hub, a message that came after mass flight delays marred the Fourth of July weekend. The carrier has given away 30,000 frequent flyer miles to customers hardest hit by the chaos.
“This has been one of the most operationally challenging weeks I have had in my entire career,” Kirby said in a note to employees on Saturday.
He said the airline needs more gates at Newark Liberty International Airport because of the frequent backup of planes there. “We’re going to have to further change/downsize our schedule to give ourselves more spare gates and bumpers – especially during thunderstorm season,” he added. United did not provide further details about the cuts to the schedule.
The day before, Kirby apologized for taking a private jet out of New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport while thousands of passengers were stranded, CNBC first reported Friday.
The problems began with a series of thunderstorms in some of the nation’s busiest skies along the East Coast last weekend, cutting off flights for planes. While most airlines have recovered, United’s problems continued through the week, angering customers and crews alike. United f JetBlue Airways Executives said problems with air traffic control exacerbated the disruptions.
The tough week was also among the busiest. The Transportation Security Administration said it screened a record 2.89 million people on July 1 alone, surpassing the previous high on the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2019.
Kirby laid out the week-long problems and said that long-term changes were needed. He said the significantly delayed departures, which have been piling up at his Newark hub since last weekend, have hurt its operations. Delayed take-off up to 75% for more than 8 hours in some cases from Sunday to Tuesday.
“Airways, including United, are simply not designed to have their largest hub and capacity severely limited for four consecutive days and still operate successfully,” he wrote.
The planes and crews were then left out of position, something that often happens during severe weather and can lead to a series of disruptions for customers.
Unions complained about waiting hours for crew members to get assignments and get hotels, forcing them to stay at airports longer.
Ken Diaz, president of the United Chapter of the Flight Attendants Association, which represents the company’s cabin crews, said in a note to members Friday that the airline is experiencing a crew scheduling shortage. He said the problems had become so severe over the past week that organizers weren’t clear which city some of the crews were in.
Kirby said United must improve the platforms so crews can get assignments and accommodation more easily on the app, saying what happened over the past week is unacceptable.
Kirby has called for more investment in the FAA and Air Traffic Control to avoid delays and staffing shortages, some of which occurred after hiring and training stopped early in the pandemic.
A spokeswoman said United had sent 30,000 miles to customers who were late overnight or never arrived at their destination. It declined to disclose the number of customers who received the email.
The amount is enough to redeem a domestic round-trip ticket to several destinations, although miles required vary depending on demand on that flight or route.
More than 63,000 US flights arrived late June 24 through Sunday, and more than 9,000 flights have been canceled — or more than 4% of airlines’ schedules — a rate nearly triple the average so far this year, according to FlightAware. to track flights. FlightAware data showed United fared worse than competitors with 47% of its main schedule arriving late and 15% canceled during that period.
On Sunday, 7,650 US flights were delayed and more than 630 canceled — driven in large part by thunderstorms on the East Coast. Nearly 900 United flights, or a third of its operations, have been delayed, while nearly 1,000 American Airlines Flight delays and more than 300 JetBlue Airways Flights are delayed. New York City area airports, led by Newark, were hardest hit.
Thunderstorms are one of the biggest challenges for airlines because they can appear suddenly and are more difficult to predict than hurricanes or winter storms, when airlines can cancel flights early to avoid stranding passengers and crew.
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